It's official (-ly dry)

[jmmoxon]

Metoffice show how dry it's been - if you click on rainfall you'll see that only Scotland has had above average rainfall during Jan/Feb (& that's not by much), England and Wales have only had about 50% in Feb:

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/anomalygraphs/

Mike

[banzer]

Sad Face...

... booked a long weekend off next weekend to head up to north Scotland... looks like I'd better bring the hiking boots! Still, there's no midges, should be nice.

[slaughter950]

Time to dust off my climbing rack!

[Jim]

Still, there's no midges, should be nice.

Don't bet on it, there are none yet but things are growing/flowering/hatching early due to the warm weather - I helped a butterfly out of a spiders web today!

[justin-g]

Get out the mountian bikes - the trails are dry. I did 2 laps of Cymcarn on sat - brilliant!!

[ianletton]

Weather in Central Scotland has been fantastic* for past 4-5 days and is set to continue all week.

Very unusual for this time of year but I am not complaining.

In terms of kayaking, it's probably not such a good idea in my opinion.

BBQ'ing, Hillwalking, camping, climbing, mountain biking, loch canoeing, sea kayaking, kite flying/surfing, sailing and gorge walking are some of the options available just now.

Gorge walking is really good fun in good weather and keeps the kayaker in you alive. Especially if you think of yourself as a very small kayaker and imagine the lines you could do!

Embrace the dry weather and enjoy it while it lasts!

Ian

*fantastic in terms of temperature(high), sunshine(lots) and cloud cover(none)

[slaughter950]

Especially if you think of yourself as a very small kayaker and imagine the lines you could do!

I do that all the time!
I'm pleased I'm not just the only one, I just thought I was a bit weird. :P

[jmmoxon]

Only problem is Ian, except for Scotland & Northern Ireland (which have had above average rainfall up until recently) it's been like this since September (there was a decent spell in December, but it didn't last long)!

Mike

[justin-g]

Even then it rained in the afternoon and early evening and dropped off over night. Not the best paddlign season down in the SW. Better luck next year!!

j

[chris241]

Especially if you think of yourself as a very small kayaker and imagine the lines you could do!

I do that all the time!
I'm pleased I'm not just the only one, I just thought I was a bit weird. :P

No you're definitely not the only one. I'm always doing that when I'm out walking and happen to be along side a stream.

[jmmoxon]

May actually be some rain next Tuesday/Wednesday, possibly 10mm, more than the rest of this month anyway...

Mike

[hardy]

Heard that to Mike.Not enough,as you know.

[jmmoxon]

No, but it's a start, metoffice predict:

UK Outlook for Wednesday 4 Apr 2012 to Friday 13 Apr 2012:

It will be a cold start, especially when compared to recent days, with a mixture of sunshine and showers, these turning wintry over northern hills. There could be a brief settled spell towards the end of the first week, but generally unsettled weather looks likely to spread across the UK by the Easter Weekend. This will bring spells of persistent and occasionally heavy rain to most parts, but particularly the north. The best of any drier, brighter weather likely towards the south, but some rain is still likely here. It will also be windy at times, particularly in the northwest, with a risk of gales here. Daytime temperatures will be largely around average during this period, but below normal by night for most, with the risk of frost.

Updated: 1146 on Fri 30 Mar 2012

UK Outlook for Saturday 14 Apr 2012 to Saturday 28 Apr 2012:

Conditions look set to remain on the unsettled side, with showers or longer spells of rain affecting most areas, giving close to average rainfall amounts for much of the UK, perhaps slightly above in some places. It is likely to continue to feel cool, if not fairly chilly, particularly compared to the recent very warm spell, with temperature quite widely around or just below the seasonal average. Sunshine amounts are likely to be highly variable in this unsettled regime, but most places should see close to average amounts.

Updated: 1240 on Fri 30 Mar 2012

Netweather look further ahead (the different colours are % of average:

April
With high pressure often likely to have been the major player during March, April is forecast to see a change to lower pressure across the British Isles, with values closer to average for the time of year. The same can be said for temperatures, with rainfall potentially some way above average in some regions, but for much of the UK close to normal for the time of year.

May
Into the final month of Spring, and May is currently expected to be another month with some fairly sizeable local variations in terms of rainfall with some regions some way wetter than average. A warmer than normal month is forecast across the whole UK.

[jmmoxon]

For comparison (in Wales):



Recent years had been wetter than average until 2010:


Breakdown of last couple of years:



Mike

[morsey]

I love the fact that expansive algorithms, mega computers and thousands of meteorologists can only guess at what the weather may or may not be. Even mapping trends in archives just reveals random patterns. The only significant improvements in weather prediction seems to be the localised collection of data and plotting of short term weather pattern movements. It must be frustrating from a scientific perspective for meteorologists knowing that they can only calculate with just a small input on a factor that has literally millions of inputs!

A good top up of rivers would be nice to break this prolonged dry spell :-)

[hardy]

WOW!

I just looked at Mike's answer and got sensory overload.

My answer would have been more like
"apparently,rain's coming our way".

[jmmoxon]

Unfortunately there are no guarantees...

Mike

[irish_dougal]

Unfortunatly although its showing that Northern Ireland had more than average rainfall that hasn't really helped the kayaking issue as it all came at once so we had 1 day of excellent levels in the steeper creeks which are normally surrounded by peat bogs so the levels only last a day max and the other rivers which do hold water a little better tend to be grade 2 with occasional 3/4 and they only last a couple of days so don't be to jealous of our rivers. However we did have a couple of months of regular good waves so surfing was a bonus and being such a small country its always possible to get there!!





(these are not my photos can take no credit they belong to the great guys at Troggs Surf Shop)

[jmmoxon]

When I said recently I meant before Xmas, Northern Ireland has had below average rainfall this year as well...

Mike

[irish_dougal]

That would make a little more sense to me, although we have had a few days of heavy rain at once other than that its been pretty dry. Although my boat and board would probably have been in the surf anyway (well if you had those waves 25mins from your front door you would too)!!

[jmmoxon]

Snow warning for most of Scotland !

Mike

[jmmoxon]

March figures have now been added and everywhere had only 25 to 50% of average rainfall - in fact many places had more rain yesterday than in the last 2 months!

Mike

[morsey]

The Usk showed the effects of prolonged lack of rain.

[Andrew Battye]

Looks like there's some rain due this week
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/forecast/?tab=map&map=Rainfall

[Adrian Cooper]

My dog was unimpressed by the weather early this morning. It was nasty albeit necessary.